An ONT is a terminal of a fiber optic line in a telecommunication network that demultiplexes a signal transmitted through the fiber optic line into its component parts (e.g. voice telephone, television, data, and Internet). The ONT typically derives its power from the electrical supply at the end user's premises; therefore, many ONTs include a battery backup to maintain service in the event of a power outage.
ONTs often function as computing devices and therefore are subject to suspend operation (e.g., lock up, freeze) or otherwise become unresponsive. In addition, there are times where the ONT must be restarted to accept a software or firmware update. The ONT is often secured and mounted in an outdoor location at the customer's premises that is not easily accessible by the customer. As a result, when the ONT is in an unresponsive state, the fiber optic network company or service provider is often required to send service personnel to the end users premises to manually restart or reboot the unresponsive ONT.